In many applications including high-energy tactical weaponry, a high-energy laser system is called upon to direct outgoing pulses of high-energy laser light on-target and in-focus to a targeted object. In the tactical weapon scenario where a laser tank is hunting for flying enemy helicopters, the coordinates of a possible helicopter are acquired by a tactical radar or other wide field-of-view tracking system typically envisioned to be separate from, but in communication with, the laser tank. After target acquisition, the operator of the tracking system would then put a low-energy laser designator spot on the target and thereafter hand-over the coordinates of the acquired and thus designated target to the laser tank vehicle. The operator of the laser tank would then sight the designator spot as an aimpoint reference for directing outgoing pulses of high-energy laser light onto the target.
The designator beam and the outgoing high-energy beam, however, must traverse different optical paths from the several vehicles. The differing atmospheric turbulence, blooming, diffraction and other states thereby introduced along the two different propagation paths effect mis-targeted outgoing pulses of high-energy laser light. In addition, the two separate sub-systems andd considerably to the complexity of the overall system design and to its final cost. Moreover, the laser tank vehicle is called upon to image the whole of the targeted object to locate the designator spot, which thereby limits the utility of the overall system by increasing the system response time in proportion to the time required for processing the whole of the image to locate the designated region thereof.